Stop Bush Energy Bill!

From NRDC, please send an email, only takes a few seconds.
(letter from Robert Redford)
Dear NRDC Member,

I recently sent you this message by postal mail, but events are moving
so
rapidly I wanted to follow up by email so you can act on this as
quickly
as
possible.

Over the next few weeks, President Bush and his congressional allies
will try
once again to ram their disastrous energy bill through the U.S. Senate.
They
fell only two votes short in November and they've vowed to make passage
of the
bill their top priority now that Congress has returned from recess.

This bill may be the worst piece of legislation you and I will see in
our
lifetimes. It would pick your pocket, despoil your natural heritage,
endanger
your family's health and smother your hope for a more secure energy
future. We
ignore this bill at our own peril.

Let me tell you our simple plan for thwarting this shameless attack on
our
environment and pocketbooks. If millions of Americans each took one
minute to
protest this bill, it would cause every senator who is tempted to vote
for it
to think twice about doing so.

You can make this happen within the next few hours by doing two things:

First, go to http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp?src=RR0401
and send your two senators an email or fax, telling them to vote
against
this
pro-polluter energy bill. Then, forward my email to at least four of
your
friends, family members or colleagues.

I am emailing this message to 550,000 NRDC Members and activists. If
each one
forwards this message to just four more people, we will generate a
national
tidal wave of opposition before this day is over.

And that won't be a moment too soon. This disgraceful bill would pick
our
pockets to hand out billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to the
oil, coal
and nuclear industries. That's their long-awaited reward for making
big-time
contributions to the Bush-Cheney campaign. They profit while the rest
of
us pay
the price -- in tax dollars and environmental degradation.

This bill gives the energy giants a free pass to drill their way
through
our
last wild places, burn more dirty coal, build a new generation of risky
nuclear
power plants and dramatically increase air pollution that would sicken
the
vulnerable -- especially children and seniors -- for decades to come.

It would establish oil and gas development as the dominant use of our
federal
public lands, open national parks to the construction of electricity
transmission lines, exempt polluters from core provisions of our clean
air and
water laws and waive liability for the producers of the toxic gasoline
additive
MTBE -- even though it has contaminated at least 1,500 public water
supplies in
all 50 American states.

You'd be hard-pressed to come up with a more backward-looking, wasteful
and
self-defeating energy "plan" than this one. At a time when the federal
deficit
is soaring and we're going to war in the Persian Gulf oilfields, the
White
House wants to stick us with the tab for prolonging our destructive
dependence
on fossil fuels, foreign oil and dangerous nuclear technology.

This is not a national energy policy. This is corporate welfare, pure
and
simple. Estimates of the bill's corporate tax breaks range from $23
billion to
well over $100 billion with loan guarantees included. No surprise
there.
Big
energy companies cooked up this raid on the federal treasury during
hundreds of
secret meetings with Vice President Cheney's energy task force and
their
allies
on Capitol Hill.

It's one thing to gouge taxpayers. But to claim this rip-off is in the
national
interest, as the White House would have us believe, is a slap in the
face to
every working American.

Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of voters -- of both
parties --
understand that we simply must reduce our out-of-control appetite for
fossil
fuels if we ever are to secure energy independence. That means turning
American
rooftops into the Persian Gulf of solar energy. It means producing cars
that
get 40 miles per gallon. It means constructing efficient buildings that
use
half the energy of the average American office without sacrificing
comfort.

Making this transformation to a super-efficient, low-pollution economy
would
save consumers upwards of a trillion dollars, spare our last wild
places
from
destruction, improve our health, slow global warming and reduce our
dependence
on undemocratic regimes overseas. It's a no-brainer to anyone living
outside
the White House.

But unless millions of Americans speak out right now, the enactment of
the
president's energy bill will doom us to an apocalyptic future of
blighted
wilderness, poisonous air pollution, devastating climate change and
endless
wars over fossil fuels.

Please make your voice heard. Go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp?src=RR0401
and tell your senators to obey the will of the American people, *not*
the
dictates of giant energy corporations! Call on Congress to create a
sustainable
and affordable energy path.

And please be sure to forward this message to at least four other
people.
Believe me, millions of Americans are just waiting for a simple way to
stop
this madness and lend their support to a sane and hopeful energy
future.

Sincerely yours,

Robert Redford
Board of Trustees
Natural Resources Defense Council

. .

Note: If you have any questions about this message, please write to us
at
membership@nrdc.org

My anger @ the chickenhawk freespending world ruining facists is only balanced by my excirtement of this bluebird afternoon @ Alta

DONE & BUMP!
( although e-mailing UT Senators about stuff like this is like pissing in a resavoir to raise it. last time Bennett called me @ home to explain his position. admirable for a nuke energy lobbyist, I gues)

Dear MoveOn member,

We didn't think the hypocrisy at CBS headquarters could get any worse. But it just did.

As you know, CBS refused to run MoveOn Voter Fund's "Child's Pay" ad -- perhaps the most tasteful and uncontroversial advocacy ad in history -- during the Super Bowl. CBS executives claimed they had a blanket policy against all so-called "issue" ads.

Yesterday, we learned that the network plans to broadcast an ad promoting the Bush Medicare prescription drug law. This is part of a $13 million taxpayer-financed TV campaign to take the heat off the White House for pushing through a drug plan that benefits drug companies and insurance companies more than Medicare recipients.

The White House ad features the tagline "Same Medicare. More Benefits." But a report by Consumers Union last month said that most people covered by Medicare will wind up spending more for prescription drugs, as a result of the provisions in the law which favor drug companies. According to the Washington Post, the campaign is intended "to counteract Democratic criticism that changes to the (Medicare) program will harm older Americans."

If that isn't a controversial issue ad, we don't know what is. But since CBS appears to be changing its policy, our Voter Fund has submitted our own Medicare ad which exposes the facts behind this spin campaign to run on CBS. So far, we haven't heard back. Please give CBS a call today to let them know that they need to either pull the White House ads or run ours.

You can reach CBS at:

Phone:
CBS Comment Line
(212) 975-3247

Email:
newmediasales@cbs.com

Web form:
CBS web form

After you've called or emailed, please help us track the number of calls and emails that are pouring in by going to:
MoveOnvoterfund.org

We're spreading out the calls across a number of relevant CBS numbers, so hopefully you won't get a busy signal. Also, we have no quarrel with CBS News or any CBS journalists, who have actually given fair coverage to CBS Corporate's unfair decision. Please don't call the CBS news desk.

There's another issue involved here that needs to be taken very seriously: if Bush's Medicare ad is intended to function as a campaign ad (and that clearly appears to be the case) then this may constitute a criminal election law violation. In fact, the ad company which made the ad which will air on CBS also works for the Bush/Cheney re-election committee. We've put in a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Health and Human Services to begin the process of establishing the facts in this case.

For now, help us hold CBS accountable by asking them to stop running the Bush Medicare ad -- or to accept ours.

Sincerely,
--Adam, Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Laura, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn.org Team
February 5th, 2004

P.S. Our friends at the Center for American Progress have done an incredible job documenting the links between the Bush administration, the ad company which is creating these Medicare ads, and the drug companies. Today's Progress Report is online at:Progress Report


The Progress Report is a free, daily e-mail by the Center for American Progress. You can subscribe here:
Subscribe to American Progress Report

bump, from the great white north.

The long hard slog of economic recovery continues, as the Labor Department announced that "just 112,000 new jobs" were created – "far fewer than expected" and "a disappointing report" on the whole. Although there was a modest job increase, "job gains were well short of the pace economists say is necessary to revive the battered labor market." Since the most recent recession 33 months ago, jobs have been created at the slowest rate since World War II. This is just part of a larger economic picture, including (according to the Economic Policy Institute) "the extended duration of the job slump, the slowing of wage growth to less than the rate of inflation, the fall of income for the lowest-paid Americans compared to the rise in income for top earners, the ‘missing labor force' excluded from unemployment counts, and the skewing of President Bush's policies toward higher-income tax relief and high federal deficits." The issue of deficits and deficit prediction isn't covered appropriately in the mainstream press, either, according to Berkeley economics professor and American Progress guest columnist Brad deLong.

Halliburton, the oil company who has reaped billions of no-bid contracts since its CEO Dick Cheney became Vice President, has launched its second television ad in as many months attempting to whitewash its record. The ad features Halliburton CEO David Lesar leading off the commerical saying, "We're serving the troops because of what we know, not who we know." It was an incredible assertion, considering the company has received $2 billion in no-bid contracts (despite a history of repeatedly overcharging the federal government), and has not been punished for a "$6 million kickback scheme" or for allegedly overcharging the government while in Iraq – all while its former CEO (who has a financial interest in the company) just happens to be Vice President of the United States, and all while the company happens to be a major benefactor of the Administration in charge. See American Progress's backgrounder on Halliburton's dealings with the government.
In the ad, the Halliburton CEO says, "Our employees are doing a great job. We're feeding the soldiers." It was a comment that echoed a previous Halliburton ad with images of soldiers being fed. Unfortunately, the portrayal overlooks a report that showed the Pentagon repeatedly admonished the company for feeding soldiers "dirty" food. The report said Halliburton's kitchens in Iraq had "blood all over the floor," "dirty pans," "dirty grills," "dirty salad bars" and "rotting meats ... and vegetables." And even while scrimping on the most basic sanitation, Halliburton still may be trying to pocket some extra cash. As the LA Times reports, the company "has potentially overcharged $27.4 million for meals served to troops." And while Lesar said Halliburton's privileged position in Iraq is not because of "who we know" – the fact is there has yet to be any serious punishment of Halliburton doled out by the Administration in the face of its behavior.

Oh yeah, and it was also in the news today that Bush is supporting a nominee to the 9th Circuit Court (that oversees most western public land issues) that is a radical anti-environmentalist (William Myers III). Ran in the Seattle Times today, but can't find the link.

Trying to oppose Utah senators is worthless. Ultra Right Wing biggots listen to nobody. When I lived in UT, I received nothing but- "that is not my stance on the topic- because we should raid the environment, dig up Moab and give oil companies money" At least I'll get me some powder this weekend. Okay, i'm just pissed I had to work today.

I agree with everything from the "Redford Letter" except:

"...build a new generation of risky nuclear power plants..."

The electricity we use has to come from somewhere, and Nuclear Power is by far the safest form of practical electricity generation. Not one person has lost their life due to nuclear power in this country. The same can not be said for any other form.

And due to the anti-nuclear lobby we are depending on 20 year old technology. So what's "risky" about building new ones?